Harrison Bergeron Essay

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Individuality defines citizens of a free society by making them unique from one another. A denial of individuality equals a loss of creativity and personality. Harrison Bergeron, Examination Day, and Shades are three examples of dystopian stories that represent the way denial of individuality negatively affects humanity. These stories illustrate how dystopian governments force people to believe it is not acceptable to stand out. Harrison Bergeron from the story Harrison Bergeron by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. is unable to embrace his physical and intellectual abilities because his government restrains its citizens through impediments known as Handicaps. He is an unnaturally tenacious person which, to the government, is a threat. As he, a fourteen year …show more content…

He, as well as the majority of the members of this society, are undermined because of a deeply rooted fear their government has of its people’s capabilities. Similarly to being unable to show a certain level of intelligence, the story Examination Day by Henry Slesar follows a society where its people have to be at an average level of intelligence. Dickie Jordan, the protagonist, is introduced as a child being informed of an exam he must take. He is unaware of what this exam may mean, but readers can deduce through the distraughtness in which his parents told him that it’s negative. While Dickie is taking his test, his parents receive a phone call from the Government Educational Service informing them that Dickie is above the intelligence quota for the Government. The voice on the phone monotonously asserts, “‘You may specify by telephone,’ the voice droned on, ‘whether you wish his body interred by the Government, or would you prefer a private burial place? The fee for Government burial is ten dollars’”(4). As it is implied Dickie is executed for his intelligence level, readers now know that the Government’s brutality does not allow any living child to be above or below their limits on

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